This invention relates to oxalic acid or oxalate compounds, nutritional supplements, natural or processed foods, beverages, and methods of treatment utilizing oxalic acid or oxalate compounds, vitamin B6, vitamin C, alcohol, calcium, and/or foods, nutritional supplements, beverages, and the like containing one or more of these compounds.
The story begins with two toy poodles, Turk and Taka. These animals lived a normal house life. Except for the occasional trip or walk to the nearby reservoir, their territory was the house and backyard. As young pups they were full of energy and, of course, very spoiled. Habits, mostly bad ones, were easily formed, such as eating people food, some of which, according to a veterinarian, would not hurt them. Turk became fond of SNICKERS.RTM. brand candy bars, especially the small bite-size kind, and also carrots and beets, both of which are appearing in some commercial dog foods today.
During this time, Turk's owner, the present applicant and inventor, was doing a great deal of traveling, averaging one trip a week, and he always kept a small SNICKERS.RTM. bar near the front door in case he returned home without one. Another one of Turk's favorite treats was the small soybean crackers in oriental cocktail mix, which Turk's owner ate constantly when he was home.
When Turk was about a year and six or seven months old, Turk began to slow down. Turk's eagerness to play left him, and his appetite diminished except for the little treats mentioned above. Turk was drinking much more water and had frequent accidents in the house, especially at night. Turk's color changed from a parfait tinge to a solid white, and just before his death, to a dull grayish-white.
When Turk began to vomit occasionally after eating or drinking, Turk's owner became concerned and took Turk to the veterinarian. The examination revealed nothing, and the veterinarian diagnosed Turk as having indigestion and gave Turk some medicine. Turk's condition worsened, and so Turk was returned to the veterinarian. Blood and urine samples were taken, and test results revealed that Turk's urine was watery, but otherwise all right. The blood however, showed a high white cell count, and the veterinarian thought there might be an infection and prescribed pills. One single pill brought on violent vomiting. Turk's owner stopped giving Turk the pills and started Turk on amoxicillin.
Turk's condition worsened, so Turk was taken to the animal hospital center where they determined Turk's kidneys were failing. Turk was put on an IV due to severe dehydration. The doctors stated that they could not treat Turk unless Turk's owner could tell them what poison or chemical Turk had ingested. For the next several days Turk's owner went on a frantic search for answers. Turk's owner contacted a number of agencies for possible clues to the poisoning: Tri-County Health Department; two toxicologists with the EPA; the U.S. Corps of Engineers, who assured him that they test the reservoir daily for contaminants; and UCLA and University of Illinois poison centers. Heavy rains would bring standing water into the backyard, so Turk's owner tracked down the owners of a stable and a nursery that used to operate in the area before the houses were built, to see if they had used any type of toxic sprays. Turk's owner contacted nurseries from which he had recently bought plants. Turk's owner even contacted the 3M Company, since new carpeting with SCOTCHGARD.RTM. had been installed. Turk's owner asked all neighbors who had pets to find out if their pets had become sick.
Turk's owner also called veterinary clinics to find out if they had diagnosed similar cases recently. He also searched every square foot of the house, garage, and storage building looking for chemicals, especially antifreeze. Out of desperation, Turk's owner pleaded with the veterinarians to list poisons that had the same fingerprint, and he would then choose one so veterinarians could begin treatment. The veterinarians declined. When blood began to appear in Turk's stool and vomit, and the kidneys had shut down, Turk was put to sleep. Turk's owner vowed that with God's help he would find out what had destroyed Turk.
The attending veterinarian at the veterinary hospital was an organ specialist and professor at Colorado State University. The veterinarian extended his sympathy and after a few other exchanges he informed Turk's owner that there is one substance very damaging to renal tissue--oxalates. The owner drove directly to his company's quality control department lab where he cornered a chemist and questioned him about oxalates. The chemist said that an oxalate is a compound found in trees, mainly oaks. The owner's curiosity was running high, and as soon as he could break away from work, he went straight for a dictionary. Oxalate is defined as a salt or ester of oxalic acid, and the acid definition refers back to the oak tree. Oxalic acid is further defined as an industrial chemical used in textile and dye manufacturing as a bleaching agent. From the dictionary, he went to the chemical books, found oxalic acid and got promptly lost in a maze of formulae and equations. The owner eliminated oxalates or oxalic acid from his mind as a cause of Turk's death. What did stay in his mind was Turk's death, and again he renewed his vow to find the answer. He could not get Turk out of his thoughts, because every time he looked at Taka, Turk's brother, he wondered why Turk had died and not Taka?
One outside activity of Turk's owner was, and still is, gardening. Naturally, he had a subscription for the organic gardening magazine, and perused through every article. In the April 1986 edition he came across an article by Judith Benn Hurley, "Calcium From Your Garden," and up popped the word oxalate. Imagine his surprise, an industrial chemical, a poison, in a magazine on organic gardening.
Once again the search was on. The owner wrote a letter to Ms. Hurley describing his research, the reason for it, and asked if she had anymore information on oxalates she could share. The reply he received provided him with more information than he could have hoped for. Her reply sent him to the library, to the section containing books on nutrition. He read many volumes and was amazed by the amount of information available on plant life and the effects of plant vitamins on maintaining human life. His effort was rewarded when he found a volume Let's Get Well by Adelle Davis, 1965. It contains the perfect finger print of Turk's death. Chapter 19, page 239 states the following:
When both vitamin B6 and magnesium are undersupplied, the kidneys are further damaged by sharp crystals of oxalic acid combined with calcium, and as much as three-quarters of the kidney may be replaced by scar tissue. Children with oxalic acid kidney stones frequently have high blood pressure and kidneys so damaged that they become progressively worse, causing death from kidney failure early in life.
The owner's mind went back to information he had gathered concerning the use of beagles in testing because their organs are more like those of a child than any other animal. How true the statements, "love them to death" and also "kill them with kindness." The owner believed that he had inadvertently killed Turk by feeding him candy bars, soybean crackers, beets, carrots, and who-knows-what-else that might have been very high in oxalate, oxalic acid or both. He believed that these snacks saturated Turk's system to a point where Turk's kidneys could no longer function. When that happened, the acid began to destroy renal tissue. As the tissue was being destroyed, Turk's condition worsened until other vital functions were affected. Turk's owner also believed that since oxalates and oxalic acid suppress calcium, no healthy red blood cells were being produced. The blood in Turk's system had to have been totally saturated with oxalic acid. When all the renal tissue was destroyed, the kidneys shut down and swelling began due to edema. There was no hope for recovery.
Taka was not affected because he did not crave or eat soybean crackers, beets or carrots, nor the SNICKERS.RTM. brand candy bars with peanuts. When the owner realized what caused Turk's death, he put Taka on an oxalate/oxalic acid-free diet. Some weeks after putting Taka on the diet, the color of Taka's coat, which had faded, began returning to normal. Knowing that a human could suffer from an excess of oxalates and oxalic acid, the owner put himself on a similar diet as well.
Several significant events occurred beginning with the return of the color of Taka's coat while on the oxalate-free diet. The owner began to watch for signs in his own hair and noticed that his graying seemed to have at least slowed down. Since the owner was due for a physical, he checked into a clinic and stated he had some minor pain in his chest on the left side where he had muscles torn in a car accident many years earlier. During the exam, the doctor decided to be safe and ordered an EKG. In prepping for the EKG, the nurse shaved his chest where the transducer cups would be placed, and then with a small orbital sander removed some of the dead skin for better contact. Weeks after the exam when the hair began growing out, it was black instead of gray or white.
Many mornings before starting the oxalate-free diet, the owner would get out of bed with a dull backache, and occasionally it would really spasm when he would lean over the wash basin while brushing his teeth. He complained and swore he would get a new mattress, believing it to be the cause of the backaches. By the end of the day the ache would be gone and out of mind. When the backaches stopped, he realized it was his kidneys and knew it was the soybean crackers and nuts in the oriental mix and other related items that had raised his oxalate level to the point it began bothering his kidneys.
After retirement, Turk's owner was planning to move and some friends stopped by to visit. One evening while having cocktails with the friends, they began talking about health and age, etc. One of the ladies mentioned she needed bypass surgery, but it could not be scheduled because her red blood cell count was low, and the doctors could not get it to rise, even though she was on a third medication. Turk's owner's research had paid off. He gave his organic gardening magazine to the lady and urged her to read the article by Judith Benn Hurley. He explained to her that the reason her red cell count was low was because of her diet. She ate very little meat, a primary source of pyridoxine (vitamin B6), did not drink much soda pop, orange or pineapple juice (all high in citric acid), and only consumed alcohol in moderate quantities. Her diet contained items high in oxalic acid, like spinach, her favorite salad. The owner mentioned that in his research he had discovered there were three chemicals that would counteract the oxalic acid--pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), citric acid, and alcohol. He gave her a handful of 50 mg vitamin B6 pills and suggested she take one immediately and then one a day for the first week, and then one every other day. Three weeks later she told him that the doctor had just scheduled her operation.
Turk's owner had also noticed that he did not have the recurring attacks of heart burn he had prior to changing his diet and taking vitamin B6. He thought it a great discovery.
Then, Turk's owner moved to Arkansas. His stepdaughter who is married and was living nearby, worked at a local hospital. One day she began running a high fever in the range of 104.degree.-106.degree., went home, and went straight to bed. The fever fell, and the next couple of days she returned to work only to have the fever return after a couple of hours. She went home and the cycle repeated. She mentioned this to a doctor in the emergency room and a series of tests were ordered looking for a virus, an infection, even a tubular conception. Turk's owner became involved, because after listening to long, sometimes whispered conversations between his wife and stepdaughter, he asked what the trouble was. His wife explained what had happened and that the doctor was looking for some type of urinary tract or vaginal infection, but there were no positive cultures. When he heard that the stepdaughter experienced burning and irritation when urinating, he asked his wife why they did not think about diet. His stepdaughter was eating primarily salad bar meals loaded with oxalic acid. He had his wife immediately take a bottle of vitamin B6 pills to his stepdaughter with instructions to take two pills immediately, another one after twelve hours, and one a day after that for the next week. In two days her fever was gone, and she went back to work. After the third day all symptoms were gone and she was back to normal as best they could ascertain. Other people who complained of back pain without having muscle or spine problems found relief after Turk's owner advised taking vitamin B6.
One day while drying off after a shower, Turk's owner noticed a mole-type growth on the inside of his right thigh. He had not noticed it before, and shortly after that, a growth began at the end of his right eyebrow near the bridge of his nose. As the growth on the thigh became bigger, so did his curiosity. He picked at the growth until some of it came off and it bled. Now curiosity turned to concern. A month later the growth on the thigh reappeared and the growth on the eyebrow grew larger. He would check both growths every day and they were always on his mind. He believes it was his obsession with Turk that guided his thoughts to oxalic acid. This acid is readily available in foods people eat, so why would God put a substance in food He provided to sustain life, if that same substance by assaulting the kidneys can kill life? It just did not make sense. That question constantly ran through his mind begging to be answered. Night after night, hours were spent turning and tossing in restless sleep, searching and searching for an answer. He had read every article in every magazine he could get his hands on about foods thought to help in the fight against cancer, antioxidants, free radicals, and anti-rust in the blood. One night his mind stopped on one particular item. It was a sentence he had read about foods, and the importance they play in health and healing. "The acid in strawberries is thought to help prevent prostate cancer." Acid--there it was, that is the word that halted his mental computer. When he woke up, questions began running through his mind. If oxalic acid would destroy healthy renal tissue, could it possibly destroy sick tissue first? Is cancer not considered to be sick cells? Are these free radicals sick cells? What about antioxidants? Are there really different types of cancer, or are they a similar type of sick cell just in different parts of the body? Why are there different types of chemotherapies?
There were just too many questions. He had to go back and start with his initial question. He asked a dear friend, a devout Christian, whether the Bible states that God put everything on earth that man needs? At the same time he went on a very high oxalic acid diet and avoided citric acid and reduced his intake of pyridoxines and alcohol to a minimum. His dear friend came back and said she told her Bible class of his request. They searched the Bible and noted three places that mention God providing for all of man's needs. What is significant is that articles describing food groups for cancer prevention, especially the vegetable groups, name those that have significant amounts of oxalic acid as per USDA Bulletin #11 (Table I). At this time he became convinced it was not the beta carotene, the vitamin C, or anything else that was the cancer fighter--it was oxalic acid. Once again he started asking himself questions. Would oxalic acid destroy sick cells before healthy cells? The only answer he could come up with is the affirmative.
Hence, there is a need for an oxalic acid or oxalate composition and method of treatment for warm blooded animals including humans and pets.